Taste of the Zodiac: Fruits Basket Ficlets
by paynesgrey
Summary: These are small Fruits Basket ficlets, usually 100 words minimum. Some of them contain romance, angst, drama, and mystery. As I get more into the Fruits Basket fandom, I use drabbles to practice my themes.
1. Default Chapter

**Theme: **Illness  
**Title:** Purr away the Rain  
**Rating:** G  
**Characters/Pairing:** Kyo/Tohru (not my normal choice but just got inspired)  
**Warnings:** Waff/Fluff  
**Summary:** Her warmth can chase away the rain.

The rain was his agent of strife.  
Before staggering to bed, he heard the sweet, worrisome tone in Tohru's voice.  
"Kyo!" Tohru moved toward him.  
His eyes widened as her body squeezed his, feeling the inevitable catch.  
"Tohru … ?" His carnality ebbed.  
She nuzzled the soft shape in her arms, floating upstairs and cradling his body. She descended on his futon.  
With her closeness, he felt a numb, tantalizing sensation drown him.  
"We can stay like this ..." She wanted to stay 'forever,' but instead said, "Until you're better."  
Tohru smiled feeling content with his hot, kinetic purrs against her.


	2. Unsaturated

**Title:** Unsaturated  
**Challenge:** Transformation  
**Characters:** Akito/Shigure  
**Warnings:** Character identity spoiler.   
**Summary:** Akito was amused to see the odious color robbed of its brightness.

'I detest pink.' Akito said in exasperation of her new kimono. Akito liked black; sugary colors reminded her of that hateful girl.

When the austere grays in her room reflected on the pink kimono, it turned into a dull murky peach.

To see the odious color robbed of its brightness amused her. She wrapped it around her shoulders.

"Ah, that's a different color on you, my Akito," Shigure had whispered, bringing a sliver of light with him when he slid inside her room. The bright pink soaked in warmth momentarily.

She lightly growled, throwing off the garment in rabid disgust.


	3. Precious Thing

**Title:** Precious Thing  
**Challenge:** Crossover: XXXholic/Fruits Basket

**Rating:** G  
**Characters:** Yuko Ichihara, Shigure Sohma, mention of Akito  
**Warnings:** some references to character identity  
**Summary:** Shigure meets with an important guest.

"So, you can break the curse?" Shigure repeated. The mysterious woman gave him a subtle mischievous grin.

"I can, but you must give up your most precious thing," she said with mechanical confidence.

Shigure shuddered. Her stipulation was course, but he had to do it for his family. He almost cried knowing he would be losing those dreams of HER.

Determination hardened in his veins, "Yes, Ichihara-san, I will do it."

Her smile steadied, but her eyes danced with victory. Shigure could only imagine what this Yuko witch could gain from Akito. Regardless of the sacrifice, he would be free.


	4. For Another Day

Theme: Storm

Word Count: 100

* * *

**For Another Day**

Summary: Kyoko knows that once you're involved in the game, its hard to leave with a rising storm.

Thunder mirrored her beating heart. She looked around at murky shadows.

"Kyoko-sama," someone said, her voice sharp for revenge. "Those bastards have to pay."

Her subordinates nodded. Kyoko's heart tightened. Puddles of rain began to form, marking a harbinger of impending bloodshed.

Someday she would be free from it. She wouldn't have to smell preliminary blood in the clear air. Back and forth, gangs would scream vengeance.

"Kyoko-sama," the girl repeated, her snarl riding in sync with the crackling sky.

Someday, she would like to know what a life would be like without violence.

But it would not be today.


	5. Not Forsaken

**Theme:** Love/Hate  
**Word Count:** 100  
**Genre:** Drama  
**Warning:** Character identity spoiler  
**Summary:** _...would he dare forsake his god?_

**Not Forsaken**

'Damn her," he silently seethed. He despised that his life belonged to someone else. He hated to see the torment the others would endure.  
She frustrated him, but would he dare forsake his god?  
Never, only because…

In his dreams she filled him with a heat and exhilaration that no physical act could match. He would feel pain and pleasure simultaneously. And he meant to hold onto it. The feeling was all because of her.  
Shigure could hate her for what she did, he could love her for what she was; either way, he would strive to make her his.


	6. Heads Up

**Spoilers: Chapter 130 **

**Pairing: Shigure/Akito **

_Heads Up._

Akito has a lot of time left in her life to heal. She surely needs that time to heal – to be able to smile without grimacing, to be able to use hands for caressing and not scratching.

Akito thinks she can start acting like a woman now. She still likes suits and ties, but she'd like to try on a dress too – maybe dresses that are a lot like the ones Tohru wears.

She'd like to feel pretty. She'd like to feel _wanted_ – on someone's individual volition and not because she makes them.

Akito wants to feel _human_ again. With Tohru's smile in the back of her mind, always, she knows that she can.

_Tails Down._

Shigure didn't like this feeling. He didn't know how to get it all back. It was _impossible_ – the curse was over with, and that one special bond that had kept him grounded was now gone. She had spread wings and now she could fly.

He was rather sure she'd fly away.

But the feeling was new, different and somewhat tantalizing.

'So this is what it feels like?'

He wondered, in turn, what it felt like to want someone that was not tied to him by cosmic force. And in that tantalizing nature, could he be strong enough to get her back?

Would she give him that chance? There was merit in such a chance opportunity, a turnabout of play that had unforeseen results.

Anxious and seduced by the opportunity, he wondered and yearned for such a game.

And there was plenty of time for such things – plenty of time for both of them.


	7. Not Like Before

AN: Done for the "Laughter" theme at fb fics on Livejournal.

Pairing: Akito/Shigure, end of manga spoilers

Rated: G

Word Count: 375

Not Like Before

A stream of laughter came through her lips, and Shigure was taken aback. For a moment it sounded odd to him, as if the joy and felicity belonged to someone else. He turned his head to her, and he saw her engaging in conversation with Hatsuharu.

The awkwardness in the pit of his stomach returned.

He'd never seen her laugh like that, not with Hatsuharu, not with everyone in the family around her, engaged and relaxed.

It was strange, yet it was a nice change. He thanked Tohru for that, and he wondered if eventually Akito would have come to this conclusion in time, especially when the curse was already breaking.

Ayame made a crass joke, and Akito sent a warning glare to him. The crowd froze for a moment, but then the head of their family laughed again. There was no malice, no spite.

A fresh breeze fluttered past them, and he could feel everyone's collective sigh.

Her laughter had never been this good-natured. He remembered that not too recently Akito had laughed when she was subjugating them or humiliating them. She'd laughed and snickered when they suffered, and she'd usually been the one who inflicted such pain.

She'd taken pleasure in their misfortune, as long as they were under her thumb; she'd made them submit to her rule and would often laugh to cover her own loneliness.

But that had changed. His Akito was no longer like that.

Shigure smiled and looked up into the sky. He didn't realize the time had slipped by, and most people had left and went back to their own lives. Akito remained by his side.

"What are you thinking?" she asked. Like her laughter, her voice was much softer too.

"I'm thinking about… how much I like to hear you laugh," he said. He turned to her and met her somber gaze. She rewarded him with a shy smile and looked at her hands in her lap. Shigure drew her against him, and instinctively she leaned into his chest.

"I never noticed before," he said, resting his chin on the top of her head. She sighed against him, and he added, "It's beautiful."

She chuckled lightly against him. It felt like a warm breeze against his heart.


	8. As the End Draws Near

AN: Written for the "alternate pairing" theme at fb_fics at Livejournal.

Pairing: Momiji/Tohru

Rating: PG

Word Count: 512

As the End Draws Near

He was running out of time. He knew this, yet Momiji searched for the perfect time to sneak a taste of her. The curse had abandoned him, and his newfound freedom invigorated his senses. She considered him just a friend, and not someone she could date, but he remembered the softness of her body pressed against his as she cradled him in his rabbit form – and his feelings toward her were not as a friend's.

All of that was gone now. He no longer felt like a boy, and when he watched her – a shadow on the wayside, he felt a love deeper and stronger than he's ever known – a bond more tangible than the one he had with Akito.

However, Tohru was not meant for him. Momiji wasn't stupid. The cards were laid out differently in front of him.

Still, he had to try. He had to have one thing, one moment to bring his feelings to culmination. It was the only way he'd be able to let go.

Momiji heard the chatter of graduation plans filter throughout the hall, and he let it fade into the background as he made his way down the hallway and saw Tohru by herself, making her way to homeroom class. He picked up the pace, and her arm swung backward, and he gently grabbed her hand, pulling her aside.

She was startled, and she bumbled and rambled for a moment before realizing who it was. Her warm eyes sparked the fire in him, and as she smiled gently at him, inquiring about his day and health. Momiji gave her a sad smile before leaning closer. Tohru gaped in curiosity, and he knew she must have found him strange in that moment.

It was a perfect moment.

He pressed their bodies against the hard wall of the school. Kids were already streaming inside their classes, and no one paid them any attention. Time slowed, and Momiji felt his heartbeat throbbing in his ears. His lips met Tohru's, and she stood as a solitary statue and gave him no encouragement but also did not deny him.

Her scent circled around him, and her lips were dry and warm. He could feel the heat of her cheeks radiating onto him, and when he felt her hand tremble in his, he disengaged.

He pulled back and smiled at her coyly. "Thank you," he said, though the words stung slightly, feeling of finality and a formal goodbye. He watched Tohru bring her hand up to her lips, and he took delight in the redness of her face.

She stuttered and murmured something incomprehensible, but Momiji took it as gratitude in his own way. He turned his head with a grin and skipped down the hall.

His heart, once rumbling like a fierce engine in his chest, slowed to a normal, peaceful pace. The heat of her lips stayed on his for the rest of the day.

But the memory of it all would last longer – bittersweet – of the purest love Momiji once desired but was fated to be denied.


	9. A New Evolution

AN: Written for the "Passion" theme at fb_fics on Livejournal: Pairing: Hatori/Mayuko, manga canon. Word Count: 520. Rated G.

A New Evolution

Passion was not an emotion that Hatori knew intimately. His lifestyle as the Sohma's doctor did not make time for such emotions, and to feel anything with such fervor was a risk of catching Akito's ire. He had done that once - fallen in love and felt so passionately about someone else that he had become greedy, and Akito's reaction to his engagement had confirmed that he was.

So he lost her, lost that passion, and when he stripped Kana of her memories, all that remained were guilt and pain. He suffered all on his own, emotionally and physically, and he closed off his heart to others.

He never forgot that little time of passion he experienced, even if it pained him to remember. His only regret was he alone remembered everything, yet his main concern had always been for Kana. She moved on, found someone else, and she became happy without him and no longer suffered. If he had to endure the memories without her, he was strong enough as long as he sacrificed his passion and submitted to Akito.

His reward for this suffering, he supposed, was that in time such pain numbed and faded into the past. Things changed and their family evolved. Even Akito was able to find her own happiness, and though Hatori once warned Tohru Honda to stay away from their family, he was now grateful that she didn't listen to him in the end.

He smiled when he thought of the past now. The pang of regret still lingered in his heart ever so slightly, but seeing Kana's happiness with her husband was enough to mollify his residual somber thoughts. As he moved on, Hatori felt renewed. Akito didn't care what her family did anymore, and even Shigure was cheering for Hatori to evolve himself.

Hatori would never publicly exert such elation, not for Shigure or Ayame's pleasure, but he would resolve to break free from the wall he built around his heart, and he would try to find that passion again.

He blinked and came back to reality when he saw Mayuko's brilliant eyes watching him from across the table. She smiled at him, content to watch him as he fell into his own internal thoughts, and he wondered what he was doing to make her so happy. Was it his smile of being free from this curse? Or was it because they were sharing their fifth date together, and things could only get closer between them?

Hatori sipped the last bit of his tea, and he paid the bill as they left the cafe. Mayuko took his arm, and as Hatori watched her, he was unable to censor the words that came pouring past his lips.

"Come home with me," he said in a low, controlled tone. Her cheeks lightly flushed and she nodded once before leaning closer against him. The two of them walked arm and arm down the quiet streets toward the Sohma household. The view in front of them was painted with a setting sun, with the colors of unbridled love stretching skyward to the waking stars.

END


End file.
